This invention generally relates to the handling of a waste or residual web initially forming a label web adhesively bonded to a carrier web and together comprising a web laminate, the waste web resulting upon the formation of labels from the label web such that the carrier web supports the labels. The laminate proceeds through a machine having a separating roll for causing the label supported carrier web and the waste web to respectively travel along different paths.
Such web laminates are used to produce labels or the like in a simple and economical manner. The term "labels" is used to describe a plurality of small sheets or web segments which, following a suitable lettering or printing operation, can be adhesively bonded to a carrier web. The labels can represent, for example, a detailed listing of products or ingredients contained in a package or liquid container or can be used as address labels for envelopes. The term "labels" is, therefore, a collective term for a plurality of products, and the term referred to herein is used in its broadest sense.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,043 discloses a method of producing labels from a web laminate which consists of a label web adhesively bonded to a carrier web. The laminate passes through a die-cutting station where all the layers thereof other than the carrier layer are diecut to form a succession of spaced labels on the carrier web. The waste web remnants consisting of portions of the label web outside the diecut labels is removed from the web and wound up on a roll. The carrier web containing the labels adhesively bonded thereto proceed through a further processing operation which may include printing or stamping of the labels. Otherwise, the labels can be imprinted or stamped before the label web is diecut to form the labels.
Following removal of the waste web from the carrier web, the waste web has a plurality of openings corresponding to the labels which remain bonded to the carrier. The residual web is therefore often referred to as a lattice web.
The carrier web supporting the labels bonded thereto is usually separated from the waste web using a separating roll causing the waste and carrier webs to proceed along different paths following the separating operation.
The residual web, with its undersurface adhesively coated, is usually wound up into a roll, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,043, so that it can be thereafter removed following the winding operation. However, in order to remove the wound residual roll it is necessary to stop the machine thereby involving the machine downtime which is costly. To avoid this production loss, several rewind stations could be provided for rewinding the waste webs, although such an arrangement becomes relatively complicated and expensive.